Maker's requiem
by shadowmugen
Summary: A final lament to those lost to the fade. A weapon designed to combat the blight awaits it wielder in the space beyond the fade's scope. Ashiran must choose between giving up her name to save Ferelden or keeping her true fate by becoming a grey warden. DA:O Dalish origin story with my own little flair to the beginning and mostly my non-canon plans for the main part of the story.


Disclaimer: I own only my OC's not Dragon Age or The Elder Scrolls.

* * *

912 TE

* * *

Deep in the labyrinthal ruins of a long abandoned thaig shunned even by the blight a man with a gryphon mask and two dozen cowled figures, robed in alabastrine white accenting a faded sanguine sunburst upon their breast, twice encircled the focal point of a ritual so obscure its like had not been seen since the hubris of the Tevinter Magisters... until now that is.

The man's mask gleamed like liquid gold in the torchlight as he smeared knarled glyphs with an onyx tinged crimson powder over an umbral statue bearing an eluvian in its bosom, strangely its likeness was not that of a dwarven paragon but of an ancient tevinter goddess, mismatched with the rigid architecture surrounding it the statue radiated a certain sense of foreboding to those around it. Disregarding the bedimming atmosphere the masked man beckoned the cultists to raise their voices in a hymn to the forgotten.

* * *

 ** _"Vulok do grohiik_** ** _govey vundonin nol daar hakrim_** ** _."_**

 ** _"_** ** _Bolaav mii rahnd wah hin nahlon ven jaaril mii nol lokro bah."_**

 ** _"_** ** _Mey do jul bein skah lost prii skah hofkiin tiik naal maltrin."_**

 ** _"_** ** _Jaaril ahrk frey mii ko daar un zok riid aak ont viir kun."_**

 ** _"_** ** _mu tolaan los daar gein grozein wah aam faal Wahliik ol stahdim sunah."_**

 ** _"Ofan daar fariik lein tiidnu kaal wah krif kreyn okaaz yolos uv sahrot kun."_**

* * *

For days they endured on hope alone but as the hymn faded in strength so too did their number dwindle in fatigue until only the masked man remained to carry the burden whispered through cracked and bloody lips. Not long after the last of his brethren fell so too did his breath leave him and the hallowed vault undisturbed. Luckily all was not lost for even to the uninitiated dovahzul was not merely a language but a fundamental edict ingrained in the foundations of existence that once spoken wove into a self fulfilling prophecy that even a god could never rescind.

The sands of time drifted ceaselessly through the centuries on heavy winds but still the voice of the masked man bided its time growing stronger in the world between eluvians in preparation for when the days were at their shortest and hope was a bitter wine that that bled from the tongues of the dead. Four times the Grey Wardens answered the Archdemon's reckoning call, four times the lands were scoured clean, four times the taint was purged all the way back to the Deep Roads and four times hope had surged anew before one individual's altruistic folly broke the cycle and woke an Archdemon and a blight to surged an age too early.

More powerful than any before this Archdemon would not be cowed by the waning strength of the Grey Wardens alone and so every intact eluvian was reactivated in search of one who would be worthy and resilient enough to withstand the blessing that would be bestowed to them.

* * *

30 Dragon

* * *

Far into verdant groves of the Brecilian forest one month after the dreaded Archdemon's awakening the opportunity it had been awaiting rose. Two Dalish elves, one with an arrow notched on his bow and another twirling two daggers betwixt her fingers, wandered stealthily through the halls of a derelict elven ruin occasionally poking at the floor or ceiling rather unnerved-like as if they expected some horrible hairy monstrosity to ambush them. Statues revering the elven pantheon adorned alcoves along the musty corridors with vines and giant spider webs clinging to the ceiling while rubble littered the floor.

The dagger wielding Dalish elf took a moment to scan the floor when her keen eyes caught on a suspicious looking tile in front of a door just a short ways ahead of them which she promptly called to her friend's attention, he nodded in understanding and motioned for her to take the lead, crouching she smoothly approached the tile before slipping a dagger from its sheath and sliding it under the tile until a subdued clicking noise indicated that the trap was disarmed. The squeakiest door in existence alerted nine giant spider in the adjoining room to their unwelcome visitors, three of which promptly shot webs at both of them that the elven maiden evaded effortlessly unlike her friend that was left vainly struggling to escape the webbing only to get himself stuck in an awkwardly sensual pose on a wall to the left of the door.

"A lot of help you are just hanging around while I do all the work." She huffed exasperatedly while sidestepping a giant spider before teaching it a lesson about pointy things."Isn't this a little backwards, I thought it was the dashing hero that's supposed to save the maiden not the other way around." She teased him relentlessly as his complexion imitated that of a choking cuttlefish. She flourished her daggers in a sterling dervish neatly dispatching four of the remaining eight arachnids at once and rolled into a flip with her daggers in a reverse grip she impaled two more showcasing her substantial knowledge and vast experience in pointy applications to mundane issues, like a fulcrum she snapped up reversing her crossed arms and whipped her dagger at the two retreating spiders before languidly retrieving them.

"Are you done showing off?" He groaned in a manner that would suggest that this was obviously not the first time this situation had played out - some of which may or may not have included webs, nets, cats, vines, bedding, slime, tar and one enraged Honey Badger covered in bodily fluids. "I could really use some help getting out of this, my bow seems to be successfully extracting my sense of humor through my left kidney... _Lady Ashiren_ " He grinned sardonically trying his best not to wince each time the bow nudged him, he did not need this on top of the lifetime of ammunition she already had on him and his infamous luck.

" _Lady Ashiren_ is it? Maybe I should just leave you here for the night the unrepentant mockingbird that you are." Ashiren intoned as she quirked an eyebrow. "I do so enjoy seeing you strung up like someone's dirty laundry... _Lord Tamlen_." She smirked imagining him in a noble's clothes flopping and twirling in a heady breeze as she retrieved her daggers, walking back over to him she wiped the spider's entrails off on his armor first and then teased him with a mischievous grin one last time before cutting him loose and sheathing her blades with a embellished twirl. "Now I'm done." She gloated capriciously and quickly dragged him to his feet.

Tamlen valiantly attempted to ignore further jabs at his ego as the ventured further into the ruins skewering a couple of groups of giant spiders every now and then, sadly despite his stony exterior Ashiren knew how to read him like a one sided pamphlet and she did not let her successful baiting go to waste as they neared a camber at the end of a corridor. Ahsiren noticed a large spiderweb dangling by a single strand and proceeded to make the most of it by throwing a dagger at the string just as Tamlen passed underneath it. "Sweet Mythal! I've been caught again!" Each exclamation only served to exacerbate her laughter to the point where she could barely contain herself without violently exploding, "Ash save yourself, judging by the web its huge!" the last one was just too much as Ashiren keeled over with tears streaming down her face as she struggled to breathe and laugh at the same time, it was not unlike seeing a cannon being fired for the first time - Ash had seen several examples on a Qunari off the northern coast once.

The deathly silence punctuated by Ashiren's sporadic laughter accurately described how impressed Tamlen felt about her 'little' prank at his expense. "hardy har har, okay you've had your fun now please will you get this bloody webbing off of me before I start using it to sling you from the walls." He dejectedly bumped his head against the floor as he tried and failed to roll over onto his back. Tamlen silently vowed to himself that he would exact vengeance on her for this heinous deed, it lasted all of ten seconds as his conviction caved in and he remembered all the times he had made that precise oath and just let her prank him again without any repercussions at all because he could never think of a prank that could equal any of her schemes - it was all quite depressing.

"Alright alright you big baby, just lie still so I can get at the webbing stuck between your arms." She grumbled petulantly pressing him to the floor while slicing the webbing up and tossing it squishily off to the side. "All jokes aside we'd better check out the last chamber so we can report back before we get punished with Halla duty with Maren again." Tamlen nodded in agreement and shuddered at the mere thought of all the fecal matter they had to scoop into holes last time. Both elves speedily strode forwards to the last remaining chamber, in their haste Ashiran nearly overlooked a pressure plate inlaid in the floor and just as Tamlen was about to bring down his heel on top of it she shoulder-checked him to the side while she fell to the other.

"What the-" Ashiran gestured to the floor between them. "Thanks for that but please consider not almost dislocating my shoulder next time." Tamlen snarked jokingly and Ashiren simply stuck her tongue out at him causing them both to burst into merry laughter at the close shave they had almost received. They rose and skirted around the large plate and continued on to the end of the corridor, hesitantly they slipped through the doorway together and circled down opposite sides of the tall mirror in the center of the room. Warily the searched the floor as they approached the mirror form either side and ascended the stairs leading up to its sterling surface.

An ominous crawled the wall behind them and ever so slowly slunk lumpishly closer, they felt its sickly-sweet breath upon their neck a moment too late as the terribly deformed and blighted beast swung a massive bony paw and swatted Tamlen away, he careening straight into the wall with a wet tearing sound where he slowly slid down leaving a streaked crimson trail behind him. For a split second Ashiran was frozen in shock, she it shook off and sprang into a rolling motion without a moment to lose as the spiked bear's paw slashed the air a hair's breadth above her head, she used the momentum of her roll to springboard herself up and over the decaying beast to grab a hold onto one of the spikes protruding form its upper back. Ashiran unsheathed one dagger and plunged it into the corrupted bear's spine and sheathed her other blade right next to the first one. Tamlen groaned frailly in the corner that he had dragged himself to when the beast let loose a savage roar and began to flail about attempting to dislodge its unwelcome passenger.

Ashiran clung on for dear life when the bear abruptly slammed its back against the wall and almost crushed her sending her banging down on the cold floor, it loomed over her and parted its rotting maw lowering itself to finish the job before two arrows swiftly found their home in each of its eyes."Eat that your fade blasted demon! Eat it with your eyes!" Tamlen laughed hysterically. the creature bellowed in unbridled rage as it reared up on its back legs and stomped down where Ashiran had been less that a moment prior, it was a clear chance to finish off the damned thing once and for all as she sprung back up to her blades and used the as handholds to climb up its back and ram her dagger through the back of its skull over eleven times all the while screaming in a mixture of fear and desperation. When she came to he senses she looked down at the potpourri of her handiwork with unparalleled satisfaction until she realized the source of her joy as it dropped into a bottomless void of despair. Ashiran clambered off the rotting cadaver's back and rushed to where Tomlen lay slumped against the wall with his bow in his lap. "You stupid idiot, what the blazes were you thinking pulling a move like that, did you finally think that you had found a way to get one up on me? Well!? Did you!? I've got to say this has to be one of the most pathetic pranks you have patched together." She hovered over him clenching her hands together and rambled desperately to deny reality for a more acceptable and definitely more truthful outcome.

"I'm the idiot am I!? Who was the damned fool who decided that jumping on the demon bear's back with a pair of daggers and then almost getting herself smeared across the chamber floor was a brilliant plan!?" Tomlen may have been severely injured but that would not stop him from giving his foolish friend a piece of his mind. "What in the name of Mythal were you bloody well thinking doing something so stupidly dangerous, what if-"

"But I didn't and it worked so why are-" She cut him off in the middle of his rant.

"I don't give a damn! If you ever do that again I'll break your legs and keep you at home!" All Ashiran could do was kneel at his side in shock not, even when they were children had he lost his temper so completely, there was blazing weight to his gaze as his eye locked with her's. Somehow he had exhumed a part of himself that she had not known existed and he brought the full weight of it bearing down on her pinning her in place. "You're a fool, you could have died and then who would I spend all of my time with? The Halla!? If I had it my way you'll be slinging their crap for the rest of your life!" He was riling himself up with all of his bottled up emotions.

"Tomlen..." Ashiren patiently asserted after she had gotten over her astonishment. "Tomlen." She tried again but he just kept on babbling over her. "Tomlen!" She barked sharply.

"What!" He yelled still pumped up from his temporarily interrupted rant. " I mean.. yes Ashiren?" He corrected himself meekly once he saw the furious expression on her face.

"You're bleeding, we need to get you back to the Keeper so she can see to your wounds." She exercised her patience and succeeded admirably in her effort to control her rising temper.

"Okay but you know I'm not going to last that long." He stated calmly.

"Then what do you suggest." She almost growled the words out in anger at his defeatist attitude.

"The eluvian, we can use it to get back to camp right away." Tomlen grinned with bloody teeth as he pointed at the glowing mirror. "Judging by the moronically blank look on your face I can tell that you weren't paying attention when Paivel Hahren was telling us about Arlathanian history, he even took us to a inactive eluvian. You don't remember any of this do you? What did you have for breakfast today?" Ashiran just barely shrugged her shoulder in response.

"Food?" She smiled endearingly as if she was was the goddess Mythal reborn and the sun shone out of her rear end. Tomlen was not impressed.

"I give up. There is no way that you will ever change so I might as well give up now... I can't even, you know what. Take me back to camp." He groaned dejectedly feeling the almighty aura of defeatism seep into his bones again from arguing with someone as impossible to get along with as Ashiran.

Ashiran beamed cheerfully. "Great lets go." she chirped, without asking if he was ready she yanked him up and began to half drag half support him up the steps to the eluvian. When they neared the unblemished surface of the magical mirror unintelligible chanting droned lightly in the dead silence of the chamber, it rose to a crescendo the instant that they stepped over the threshold of the mirror's frame and into The Crossroads. For Tamlen it ended with him instantly transported to the eluvian near their camp but Ashiran was a tad less fortunate, depending on who you ask.


End file.
